Eric Angel Ramos

Eric Angel Ramos is a third-year Ph.D. student in Animal Behavior and Comparative Psychology at The Graduate Center, City University of New York. Since, 2011, Eric has lead research trips with students and volunteers to study the behavior of bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) and Antillean manatees (Trichechus manatus manatus) at Turneffe Atoll in Belize as a member of Dr. Diana Reiss’ lab at Hunter College and a field scientist for Oceanic Society. His research has focused on the behavioral ecology, communication and conservation of marine mammals in Belize. During his master’s thesis research at Hunter College, Eric investigated the use of foraging-related calls by the small population of bottlenose dolphins at Turneffe Atoll Marine Reserve (TAMR) in Belize, providing the first report of this acoustic call in dolphins and demonstrated its contextual use during bottom foraging by a subset of the population; work that is currently being submitted for publication. In collaboration with Dr. Magnasco at The Rockefeller University, he piloted the use of Unmanned Aerial Systems for observing and tracking bottlenose dolphins and Antillean manatees to conduct studies on their communication and behavior in the wild.